Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Did I Really Say This?


My big mouth often gets me in trouble. So do listeners who have good memories, and Google Calendars they use to track my blowhard predictions.

Czabe,

This Google Calendar reminder popped up for me yesterday reminding me that you proclaimed on your show a year ago that if Twitter was still popular in a year you would eat a live bird and it brought an interesting range of emotions. First it makes me angry that somehow Twitter has survived; second, it makes me really miss the First Team and how your show used to get me through the day; and finally it made me reflect on the past year and fully realize how it was the worst possible year for a DC/America sports fan ever.

Thanks for the Daily Czabecast and First Team Expresses and all, its definitely not the same as the show, but at least Galdi gets to chime in. So I guess since Twitter seems to still be going strong, sooner or later there needs to be the consumption of a live bird on an upcoming Czabecast. I'd go with a sparrow because they're small and it would work towards solving you sparrow problem.

Buon Appetito,
AJ


REACT: Well, thank you AJ. It is, bitter irony, that Twitter does continue to exist, and my radio show is slowly assuming room temperature some 6 months later.

That said, I am working on a return to the national radio stage, and while nothing is imminent, I will only say "don't bet against me."

I will most likely NOT eat a live bird, as having consulted the internet on this, there appears to be a myriad of health problems that could ensue from such an act.

But being such a good sport, I have found for you a little video rendition of what me eating a live bird might look like.



Now, as for Twitter, let me just say this. I STILL don't think it's a sustainable business. It's a fucking FAD, people! In fact, unless I am wrong, Twitter hasn't generated any real money for its founders yet. Could they SELL it for some insane amount of millions? Sure. But where is the business plan?

Twitter is a 1-900 number. It is MySpace. Or, Napster. Remember the ol' "score phone". Call it up, get scores. Oooh, yeah! Hot stuff! At some point, it will have its day of reckoning where everybody standing in the big Twitter room looks around at each other, and starts to leave en mass, realizing it is a huge waste of time.

Twitter is popular!

Yeah. So were Zubaz, once.

Here is the key test for Twitter. If traditional print media was somehow forbidden by law to quote Twitter, would it have any real resonance? The only time I really think about Twitter, is when mainstream media brings it up.

ESPN reports that Athlete X said on his Twitter account: "blah, blah, blah."

Now maybe that's not the point. Maybe Twitter knew all along they were going to just be a way for celebrities to issue micro-press releases at any time of the day or night. Maybe Twitter knew that the mainstream media would be too lazy to go collect an actual quote from an athlete anymore, and just reprint Twitter jibberish.

After Rafa Nadal won the French Open to avenge his only clay court loss from last year, the AP story quoted a tweet from Andy Roddick that said: "Nadal. Best clay court player ever!"

Well, thank you for that, Andy.

For mere mortals, everyday schmucks, who is using twitter as a necessary and effective everyday tool? And would anyone ever PAY for it?

Oh, sure. "Advertising" I hear you say.

Child, please.

Every web based venture thinks - THINKS - they can make a fortune by selling "advertising." Like it's that easy. Every web based venture looks at their user numbers and thinks: "Who wouldn't want to tap into that!?"

The problem is, everybody uses the "internet". All day, every day. So just saying you have a lot of people on your particular web site, doesn't mean squat. It would be like owning a 100 foot stretch of highway pavement, saying "don't you want to advertise by painting your logo on my stretch of highway? I get a million cars a day rolling over it!"

So Twitter isn't as dead as I thought (hoped) it would be by now. But give it time. Give it time.

14 comments:

  1. To hell with twitter, this just made my day:
    "I am working on a return to the national radio stage"

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  2. the pelican video is freaking unbelievable - someday soon something will eat twitter much like the pelican eats the pigeon...god i gotta puke.

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  3. Stop worrying and learn to love the Twitter. I did. And, you will too. In much the same way you eventually cracked and joined Facebook! Looking forward to having you back on a national show soon. In the meantime PLEASE GIVE US A DAILY PODCAST!!!

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  4. Props for the Zubaz reference...I live in NJ where there are still Zubaz sightings from time to time, especially now when the weather is warmer and old school Jerz Guids breakout their Zubaz/beater t-shirt outfits.

    On the Twitter front, I'm with you. Google still hasn't figured out how to make money from YouTube, so I'm not holding my breath. Twitter might be the 8-Track tape of the Internet generation.

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  5. twitter is great. i was holding out for a while, but its the easiest way to follow the things you enjoy (radio shows, writers, music artists).you get direct to consumer communication with any you want, and no one you dont. no need to check archives for updates, or websites for new stories. i know you dont folow the nba, but all the prominent writers have really embraced it. for trade dealine, free agency, and in game commenting, its been great. i was a hater at first, and i dont do myspace/facebook, but twitter is pretty cool.

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  6. Twitter. Even the name itself sounds gay.

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  7. if you're a crotchety old guy then sure, dont do it

    if you use the internet for your sports and news though, its a great resource so you can easily keep tabs on your favorite items, not so you know when someone eats a burger or something, most media is using it for passing along recommendations, links or making quick comments, if the person is using it for BS, just drop them off your list. guys like simmons, whitlock, and others are bringing interesting things to it, and simmons was rabidly against it when it started.

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  8. Agreed about Twitter... but Red McCombs, Arthur Moreno and some other team owners might be a little confused by your highway advertising analogy. I guess they're not painting logos on that stretch of highway, but they've made a killing lining it with billboards.

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  9. I don't get TWITTER either, Czabe, but I DO look forward to you returning to the National Radio Stage. And the sooner, the better.

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  10. GREAT NEWS!! I can't wait to get you back on the air. It will be so sweet.

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  11. Okay, I get it that I could use twitter to communicate with you folks, my diehard fans.

    Fine.

    But tell me exactly, what might I use it for? What info do you want me to provide? Should my twitter feed - which does not exist yet - just be random little bleeps during the day?

    Two sentence snarkery? Things like "hey, how 'bout that f'd up 3-second call" during the NBA game?

    And to my larger point: besides us media types and celebrities, who else uses Twitter? And how. I am genuinely curious.

    Czabe

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  12. Czabe,

    First off, good luck getting back to national, those 10 minute morsels only whet my appetite, and Solly seems to spiraling deeper and deeper into the cynical abyss.

    Lots of people like myself dont tweet at all, i dont think i've ever made a personal statement - we use it just to follow teams, writers, bands, shows that we like so we don't have to check everyone's website for updates. It's convenience more than anything - i follow a news site so i get updates on impt stuff, i follow espn so i get breaking sports news, i follow my favorite band so i see when they announce tour dates, if they start wasting my time with posts about their breakfast that morning, its easy to drop them off your board

    your show was riddled with youtube references, articles you read and your musing on announcers and studio shows, just having a place where you would link those items chronologically would be nice. i cant imagine you wouldnt have interesting comments to make during your day about mark jacksonsucking the fun out of a 3man booth, but even if you didnt like that form of commenting it wouldnt matter so much as to have a place to post information. It's the people who provide useful info or just pass along things they like that are interesting to follow - recos and thoughts on movies/tv/etc - you went from 4 hours day to a once a week 10 minute podcast, twitter would be the easiest way for you to update your fans on your constant stream of thoughts on whats going on day to day in the world. but even if you didnt want to remain connected, its helpful for people like yourself who want to stay up on a wide range of topics, instead of checking 20 websites a morning you could load twitter up with the sites you normally would indidivually check.

    As someone who made so many fleeting off the cuff comments, i think it would've fit you perfectly. At this point, i cant ever imagine you admitting you were wrong about it. like i said, many people said the same things you did before they started using it

    cant wait to have you guys back in the daily routine

    Z

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  13. Looks like it's unanimous Czab, fire up the tweets dude! It also keeps you front and center until your big return. Hell, who knows, you could really pump up your return to national radio by using Twitter, it will make the Strasburg debut seem like spending a week night with Lo def.

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  14. Hey guys,, it's 2013 now.. Even Twitter is not even close to dead today, but it is already became something too common.. I hope that it'll vanish soon from our social media culture..

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